WELSH duo Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe made a big impression as Team Sky came tantalisingly close to victory in Belgium as the build-up to the Classics season continued.

WELSH duo Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe made a big impression as Team Sky came tantalisingly close to victory in Belgium as the build-up to the Classics season continued.

On the run for home at Le Samya, a plucky late attack from Thomas (pictured below) looked like it could stick, only for the Welshman to be swept up an agonising two kilometres from the finish on the final circuit.

Stannard also added his horsepower to a four-man attack alongside Thomas, the move acting as a springboard as Team Sky looked to shake things up within the final 10km.

Yet with Thomas caught the race came down to a sprint, Alexei Tsatevich taking the victory, powering clear on the finishing straight to hold off Kris Boeckmans and Adrien Petit. Chris Sutton was the first Team Sky rider across the line in seventh spot.

Rowe got the ball rolling earlier in the day with a powerful performance in the race’s three-man break, eventually powering clear of his counterparts to head solo into the final lap of racing.

Rowe had combined with Thomas Sprengers and Elias Van Breussegem to build out a gap of five minutes in the 209km event.

Van Breussegem and Sprengers tailed off, leaving Rowe to press on with a lead of two minutes heading into the final 40km. A gutsy ride saw the 22-year-old finally caught with 12km to go.

Rowe tweeted “Good day out front in the break at Samyn today, always nice to get in a break. Lights went out with 20km to go.”

Team Sky Sports Director Servais Knaven praised his Welsh pair.

“Luke was up there in the break,” he said.

“We knew it would be hard to make it to the finish, but at one point it was looking pretty good as it was really cold out there and the chasers were suffering.

“Luke was really strong but it was always going to be tough riding into a headwind.”

for him riding into a headwind.

“When he came back the other guys began to make the race hard again and tried to go in the attacks. Geraint went with around 10 to go and got a nice gap, but again with the headwind it was hard.